Kansas football will send a strong group to Big 12 media days in 2026, with five players lined up to help represent Lance Leipold’s program in Frisco, Texas.
Set for July 7 and July 8, the event gives Kansas a chance to put its 2026 team in front of the league while attention continues to build around the program. The Jayhawks are in the middle of ongoing renovations at David Booth Kansas Memorial Stadium, and after back-to-back bowl seasons in 2022 and 2023, they’ve followed that with 5-7 finishes in both 2024 and 2025. Expectations are up in Lawrence, and this season is shaping up as a key one for the program.
According to a KU release, “Big 12 Media Days is a two-day event, beginning on Tuesday, July 7 and continuing on Wednesday, July 8,” and “Both days will be broadcast live on ESPNU from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. CT and will be simulcasted on Big 12 studios.”
Kansas said it would appear on July 8, and the players scheduled to attend are redshirt junior offensive lineman Calvin Clements, redshirt senior wide receiver Cam Pickett, redshirt senior linebacker Trey Lathan, redshirt junior defensive tackle Blake Herold and junior defensive end Leroy Harris III. All five are positioned to be All-Big 12-caliber players by the end of the year.
The bigger storyline hanging over the Jayhawks, though, is the quarterback battle. Redshirt junior Cole Ballard, redshirt sophomore Isaiah Marshall and redshirt junior Chase Jenkins, who transferred in from Rice, are all in the mix for the job.
However Kansas sorts that out, the starter will have little time to settle in. The Jayhawks open Sept. 4 at home against Long Island University, then turn right around for a Sept. 11 home game against rival Missouri. After that comes a Sept. 19 trip to London to face Arizona State.
That early stretch should give a pretty quick read on what kind of season Kansas is headed for.
In Other News...
Kansas Added A Wave Of Newcomers As One Familiar Name Vanished
Kansas footballs roster finally got its first update since spring ball, and the refresh brought a sizable influx of new faces into the program. The latest change added 15 newcomers in all, a mix of scholarship freshmen, projected preferred walk-ons and a junior college transfer, giving a clearer picture of how the depth chart is beginning to take shape ahead of the next phase of the offseason.
The update also underscores how fluid this part of the calendar can be for Kansas, where the roster is still being sorted out before camp. The newcomers include six players from the 2026 high school class, eight projected preferred walk-ons and one JUCO arrival, and the full picture may not settle until the teams more complete roster refresh comes in August. [Read more 🡒]
Two Key Jayhawks From The Title Team Suddenly Face Uncertain Futures
Two familiar names from Kansas title run are suddenly looking at a different kind of offseason. Ochai Agbaji and Jalen Wilson, both now with the Brooklyn Nets, spent last season trying to carve out roles in the NBA after leaving the Jayhawks, and each had a different type of path in Brooklyn. Agbaji, a guard-forward who arrived in a trade from Toronto, appeared in 20 games, while Wilson, a small forward, got into 54 games and showed enough to stay on the radar for another contract discussion.
Brooklyn decided to let both situations move forward without bringing them back under the teams current terms, leaving each player in a more open market as the league turns toward free agency. For Kansas fans, it is another reminder of how quickly the next chapter can change for players from that championship group, especially when a roster is trying to sort out value, development and long-term fit all at once. What happens next for Agbaji and Wilson now depends on whether another team sees a clearer role than the Nets did. [Read more 🡒]
Jayhawks Fans Wont Love How This Top Five Pick Slipped Away
Keaton Waglers rise has a way of making old recruiting boards look a little silly. The Shawnee Mission Northwest product went from being a lightly recruited local prospect to the No. 5 pick in the 2026 NBA Draft, with the Clippers taking him after one year at Illinois. For fans around Lawrence, the path he took only adds to the intrigue, because Wagler was never operating with the kind of national spotlight that usually alerts the biggest programs early.
A lot of the explanation starts with how little visibility he had when the recruiting race was forming. Wagler entered high school at 5-foot-8, did not come up through a major prep pipeline, and lacked the shoe-sponsored AAU exposure that can put a player on every power-conference radar. His rankings reflected that uncertainty, and Kansas was among the schools that let the moment pass before his profile caught up to his talent, leaving a local story that now looks very different in hindsight. [Read more 🡒]